My
grandfather appears to have been one of
two "official" ship's photographers. His
original captions are included (with added
notes in brackets.)

Dating
many of the photographs has not been easy,
but it has been possible to link them to
HMS Durban's general movements.

HMS DURBAN's MOVEMENTS

HMS Durban - date and location not unknown

Most of the (incomplete) movements
are from The Times archives, for which I am
grateful. Dates reported in the press included "planned",
"due", arrived and departed. Plans change, due dates move,
and neither may always agree with reported actuals. In
addition, dates from the photographs (in brackets) also
may not match. However, the general movements of DURBAN can
be followed in outline.

1926

31 August 1926 - left Hong Kong
for UK

24 or 25 October - (Capt J C
Hamilton) arrived Devonport from China Station after nearly
five years there. To pay off

YEOMAN OF SIGNALS SMITH
JOINED SHIP at DEVONPORT

2 November 1926 - Due to
recommission for further Far East service in 5th CS, China
Station, Capt G L Coleridge in command

One
of our daily visitors. When I took his photo I
gave him 10 cents. He said no good, want 1 dollar.
He got it - Shanghai

Soochow Creek to interior, Shanghai

Sampan

Start of the General Strike when the
Cantonese (the Southern Nationalists) captured
Shanghai. Taken from our quarterdeck showing all
riverside coolies tying up their boats during the
middle of the afternoon

A view of the front Hankow I took
from the bridge with the stand camera last Sunday. The
tall building is the National City Bank of New York.
The other is the Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank which
is deserted and used by us as a beer bar. The small
building is alongside the British Consulate. In normal
times the river should be as high as the bottom of the
walls that lines the roadway.

CPO’s Cricket Team, Hankow Race Course, Sunday 11 June
1927

BACKGROUND
TO CHINA, 1927 AND 1928

The
ancient Chinese Manchu Empire came to end in 1911
when Yuan Shih-kai took over as an authoritarian
Prime Minister in Peking (Beijing), while at the
same time Sun Yat-sen was proclaimed President of a
new republic in Nanking. Sun was leader of the
Koumintang (a nationalist party dating from 1891,
which wanted a democracy based on parliamentary
majority). However to avoid civil war, Sun stepped
down in favour of Yuan. It was at this time that the
six-year old Pu Yi was forced to abdicate - the
subject of the 1987 film, "The Last Emperor".

Although the Koumintang
won a majority in parliament, Kuan wanted to be more
than a figurehead, outlawed Sun and his party and
dismissed parliament. Sun regrouped in the Canton
area where he set up a rival government. In 1916
Yuan died, a weak government was established in
Peking, the Koumintang managed to hold onto Canton,
but most of China fell into the hands of rival,
lawless war lords. China gained little profit or
prestige from entering World War 1 as an ally. A few
Chinese turned to the new Soviet Union for help and
in 1921 formed the Chinese Communist Party. They
even persuaded Sun Yat-sen to accept Soviet help and
within a year the Koumintang and Communists were
working together. A Nationalist army was created,
the authority of the Koumintang around Canton
consolidated, and a start made on helping the poor
and resisting foreign exploitation.

Sun Yat-sen died in 1925,
Chiang Kai-shek emerged as his successor in 1926 and
lead Koumintang forces north, and in 1927, occupied
Nanking. In their advance, his troops seized foreign
property, especially British and American, and
routed the war lords. Chiang was a nationalist,
Japanese Army-trained, and had studied the Russian
military in Moscow in 1923, but did not approve of
communism nor the Chinese Communist's treatment of
businessmen and landlords. When the Nationalist Army
took Shanghai in 1927, he turned his forces against
the communists and their supporters in the
Koumintang in a bloody purge which killed many. The
Communists retired south while Chiang headed north
and entered Peking in June 1928. Chiang set up the
Koumintang government in Nanking.

China had a government,
but largely in the east, while the communists
reorganised in the south, the Japanese were in
Manchuria, and large parts of central and western
China remained untouched. By 1930, Chiang had
decided to eliminate the growing communist presence,
by which time a certain Mao Tse-tung had entered the
scene. By 1934, Mao was leading The Long March to
escape the Nationalists.

(Paraphrase
from "Success (Studybooks) in Twentieth Century
World Affairs" by Jack Watson, 3rd edition 1985,
pp277-8 - an excellent series of books)

The dates
of the photographs in this period and the sequence
of events are not known and require further
research. They include a visit to the ship by
Major-General John Duncan, North China Command who
was succeeded by Major-General A E Wardrop around
25 January 1928, whether at Shanghai or not is not
known. Also the landing of a Naval force from HMS
Durban at Nanking.

Foreign
warships in Chinese waters, including DURBAN, 4
June 1927

Foreign Warships in the
Yangtze (FROM THE TIMES NAVAL CORRESPONDENT.

With the arrival,
announced in The Times on Thursday, of the destroyer
Wishart at Shanghai, the total number of warships of
the Powers at this port was 51 at the end of May,
including three lying off Woosung. This was an
increase of eight over the total at the end of
April. The list is as follows:-

The Netherlands cruiser
Sumatra has gone from the list since last month.

Ascending the Yangtze, the
distribution of the naval forces of the Powers,
according to the latest available information, is as
follows: At Chinkiang, there is the British
destroyer Verity, American destroyer Simpson, and
Japanese gunboat Sumida. At Nanking, there is the
British cruiser Carlisle and destroyer Seraph, the
American destroyer McCormick, and perhaps a Japanese
gunboat. At Wuhu, there are the British cruiser
Caradoc and two Japanese destroyers. At Kiukiang,
there are the British destroyer Wild Swan and
gunboat Woodlark, and the Japanese gunboat Katata
and torpedo-boat No. 12. This gives a total of
warships in the river between Shanghai and Hankow of
14.

The naval forces at Hankow
at the end of May included 31 vessels, a reduction
of seven on the total a month ago. The list was:

Certain warships have
again advanced above Hankow. and the French gunboat
Doudart de Lagree was reported at Chunking; another
French gunboat. the Alerte, being on passage up
river, as well as the dispatch vessel Algol. The
British gunboat Gnat and armed steamer Kiawo have
gone to Ichang, where the French gunboat Balny is
also reported.

As will be seen from the
foregoing, the grand total of warships and their
attendant vessels actually in the Yangtze at the end
of May was about 102, of which one-half were at
Shanghai.

Outside the largest shrine in Japan at Kyoto. I’m just
winding up my camera consequently no can see face

Entrance to the park, Yokohoma

With my chop sticks & sushi, Kirin beer (brewed
from 1907 and still around. Note the US sailors)

Group taken at shrine on the mountain side

17 May 1928 - due to reach
Honolulu, Hawaii (after reportedly due to leave
Yokohama on the 13 May)

22 May - arrived Honolulu

29 May - left Honolulu for
Esquimalt, British Columbia (BC), Canada

6 June - arrived Esquimalt
from Honolulu. Now reached America & West Indies
Station which includes Pacific waters, travel via
Panama Canal from main base at Bermuda. To visit
British Columbia ports over next two months.

12 June - left Victoria BC
for Kodiak

ALASKAN WATERS
June/July 1928

18 June 1928 - arrived
Kodiak

19 June - left Kodiak

21 June - arrived at
Valdez

24 June - left Valdez

26 June - arrived Juneau

30 June - left Juneau for
Sitka

5 July - left Sitka

10 July - left Wrangell

At anchor in Thumb's Cove, Resurrection Bay, near
Seward. This is the one I took for an Xmas card

Resurrection Bay

Juneau

Sitka (This and other post-cards produced at the
time by the Photoshop Studio are now in the Alaska
State Library collection)

Wrangell

Wrangell

Alaska

three sailors on glacier

BRITISH COLUMBIAN WATERS

11 July 1928 - arrived Port
Simpson

16 July (Monday) - should be at
Prince Rupert until 18 July

23 July - left Port Alexander

30 July - left Nanaimo

30 July - arrived Ladysmith

3 August - left Ladysmith

3 August - arrived New Westminster

17 August - due to leave
Esquimault

17 August - arrived with DESPATCH
at Comox

22 August - due to visit Comox
until this date

22-29 August - due to be at
Vancouver

YEOMAN OF SIGNALS SMITH LEFT
SHIP IN AUGUST

25 Aug 1928 - Prince George joined
at Vancouver

29 August - due to leave Vancouver

29-31 August - due to stay at
Esquimault

SAILING FOR BERMUDA

31 August 1928 - due to leave
Esquimault for Bermuda via Panama Canal

4-8 September - due to visit San
Diego

21 September - due to pass through
Panama Canal

28 September - due to arrive at
Bermuda

8 October - arrived Bermuda

15 October - first time in several
months, 8th CS and attached sloops should be assembled at
Bermuda today - DESPATCH (flag) from Pacific, DURBAN already
there, CAPETOWN from Trinidad, CARADOC from England, sloops
HELIOTROPE and WISTARIA from Halifax